Museum of Ancient Eleutherna Homer in Crete
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HOMER IN CRETE Model of the Museum of Ancient Eleutherna he project with the title “Building For information please contact: TComplex of the Museum of the Archaeological Site of Eleutherna – Itinerary”, Museum of the Archaeological Site ANCIENT ELEUTHERNA MUSEUM OF was implemented through the European of Eleutherna Operational Programme “Competitiveness Address: Eleutherna Rethymno 74052 Crete and Entrepreneurship 2007-2013” (NSRF) by Tel. and FAX: +03028340-92501 its operators the University of Crete and the Ministry of Culture and Sports. Mediterranean Archaeological Society (M.A.S.) his effort was also supported by private Address: Β. Hali 8, Rethymno 74100 Crete Tinitiative (Members of Excellency of Chatzichristou 14 Athens 11742 the Mediterranean Archaeological Society, Tel. +030-2130358884 Organisms, Foundations and private e-mail: [email protected] individuals). [email protected] http://mae.com.gr MUSEUM OF ANCIENT ELEUTHERNA Ancient Eleutherna secrets, which date from approximately in the Louvre in Paris. grave gifts of weapons, jewellery, films and audiovisual presenta- 3000 BC to the fourteenth century AD. Room C is dedicated to Eleuth- and tools. This tomb contained tions enhance the museum’s t approximately 380m above sea level, Excavations at the Orthi Petra necropolis erna’s cemeteries. The display the bronze shield now on dis- evocative exhibits. Aon the slopes of Mount Ida (Psiloritis), show that the Early Iron Age, particularly focuses on finds from the Orthi play as an emblem in the muse- Eleutherna stands on a prominence that re- the period from 900 BC to the end of the Petra necropolis, since these il- um’s entrance. Contacts and exchange be- sembles a vast stone ship moored in ineffa- 6th or beginning of the 5th century BC, lustrate the Homeric narrative, The display ends with a recon- tween East and West in antiq- ble green with its prow pointing northwest. was the city’s most important period, one e.g. the ritual of funerary pyres, struction of the well-preserved uity is the subject of the film as described in funerary pyre of a young male that accompanies the artifacts Eleutherna’s location at the heart of Crete, directly associated with the dawn of Greek the Iliad, par- warrior, aged approximately 30 imported from the Aegean and approximately mid-way between ancient Ky- civilization and Homer (the Iliad and donia (modern Chania) to the west, Knossos ticularly in years, who was cremated to- the Middle East, which attest to the Odyssey). the passage gether with his companion. This the city’s extroverted character. to the east, and Phaistos and Gortyn to the This is why we created the describing pyre, which dates to approxi- These journeys, provenances, south favoured the city’s development. This Eleuthernian Grove, an ar- Patroclus’s mately 720-700 BC, also includ- and exchanges are illustrated on and its ties to the sea were the basis for chaeological park that com- pyre (Book ed a unique feature: the body of a huge projected map –unique a society that was open to the world and prises the ancient city with XXIII), and a stout man, aged 30-40 years, in Greece– inside the large dis- subject to its periodic ups and downs, as footpaths, rest areas, and in- aspects of probably a prisoner-of-war play case containing these ob- the University of Crete’s excavations and formation panels. Visitors can the Homeric executed in front of the war- jects. Another film explores the investigations, undertaken systematically enjoy, both nature –the fauna rior’s pyre. story of Phronime told by Her- since 1985, have shown. and flora– and antiquities in an This unique odotus (Histories, 4.154-161). Ancient Eleutherna has been revealing its enchanting landscape. discovery recalls Hom- In Room B, a feature film pre- The Museum er’s dramatic sents the adventure of the fa- description mous statue known as the Lady leutherna’s histo- of both the of Auxerre from the time of its Ery is illustrated by slaughter of discovery, its journey to France the material remains Trojan pris- and acquisition by the Louvre, to of its culture present- oners-of-war the identification of its origin by ed in three consecu- by Achilles in Professor Nikolaos Stampolidis tive rooms. front of the and, finally, to its reunion with the The objects displayed Patroclus’s Kore of Eleutherna, for the first in Room A (vas- daita (diet). It pyre (Iliad, Book XXIII, 22-23, time since it left Crete in the late es, sculptures, gold, also portrays a 175-176,180-183) and the 19th century, in the Museum of bronze, and iron ar- society of he- pyre’s entire ritual (110-179 ff.). Cycladic Art in 2004/5. In the tifacts, inscriptions, etc.) provide roic warriors same room, an audiovisual pres- an introduction to the public, adventure and imperious For these reasons the current entation explains the monument political, religious, social, and pri- and recall princesses, like display focuses on Homer. This to which the Kore belonged. vate life of Eleutherna through Homer, who those buried is the backbone, the thread that the ages. The room is dominat- told of Odys- in Building M, connects everything. Crete can In Room C, a film completed ed by a large display case with seus’s travels and of the “cities cenotaph, is one of the earliest which contained the remains now stand firmly on two feet: in 1996 presents the funerary artifacts imported from other he saw and ideas he learned” monuments to the unknown of four women aged 13.5 to the Minoan civilization and ritual illustrated by the finds of Cretan cities and from further (Odyssey, Book 1, 3). soldier in world history. It also 72 years who held prominent Homer. These are its strong Funerary Pyre ΛΛ and the Ho- afield: Attica, the Peloponnese, Room B presents religious life houses one of the most impor- positions in the Early Archaic points in its ancient history. meric description (Iliad, Book the Cyclades, the Eastern Ae- and cults at Eleutherna from the tant finds from the Orthi Petra society of Eleutherna. Another XXIII). Finally, the film projected gean islands, Asia Minor, Cyprus, Early Iron Age to the Christian necropolis, the Eleutherna Kore, rock-cut tomb, the “Tomb of the Audiovisual material in the special area off Room A Phoenicia and the Syro-Pal- era. It also houses Monument which is closely associated with Warriors”, housed the cremated encapsulates the meaning of estinian coast, and Egypt… 4A, a heroon-sanctuary, which, the famous Lady of Auxerre, the remains of Eleutherna’s illustri- n addition to the rich explana- the museum’s sub-title Homer These illustrate the “Odyssean” if interpreted correctly as a exquisite Daidalic sculpture now ous warriors with their opulent Itory material and texts, special in Crete..